In “Fruitcake in Space,” Gravy reporter Bronwen Wyatt explores a bizarre footnote in the annals of human space travel. In 1968, a scientist at a military research facility developed a very unusual recipe: a nutritionally-fortified fruitcake designed as an emergency ration for astronauts. It might be easy to dismiss this fruitcake, but we’re here to argue that it’s part of a larger story—one that takes us from the early days of NASA’s space program to our current quest for Mars. Wyatt investigates the importance of safe preservation techniques in space, how NASA determines what food astronauts will actually eat, and why fruitcake actually makes perfect sense as an emergency ration.

In an archival interview from 1966, dietician Mary Klicka at the Natick Laboratory Army Research, Development, and Engineering Center points to the unique challenges of preparing acceptable menus for long-term space travel. Wyatt speaks to Vickie Kloeris, who managed NASA’s food systems for nearly thirty years from the laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Jennifer Levasseur, a curator specializing in food at the Air and Space Museum. Finally, retired astronaut Cady Coleman shares her perspective on dining in orbit. Coleman, who volunteered for the role of "food czar" on the International Space Station, tells how food becomes a form of currency and a tool for building camaraderie among astronauts.

Kloeris, Levasseur, and Coleman emphasize that dining space is about more than the mechanical function of obtaining enough calories to survive. Even in the most barren environments, our cultural drive to bond over food is a connection to our lives on earth and part of what makes us human. The selection and preparation of food—work that is often dismissed as inconsequential domestic labor—is a crucial part of the success of any mission in space.

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In “How a Humble Crab Dish Became the Soul of Tampa,” Gravy reporter Nicole Hutcheson travels across Tampa to trace the story of a

Every city has a dish that says something true about the people who built it. In Tampa, that dish is crab chilau. Made with blue crabs and simmered in tomatoes, garlic, spices, and served over pasta, crab chilau is shaped by Sicilians, Cuban and Afro-Cuban families, and Tampa’s Black community—each group adding a twist to make it their own.

Hutcheson’s journey travels from historic Ybor City to rapidly gentrifying corridors of the city, and even knee-deep into the marshy waters of Tampa Bay. Along the way, she meets the people carrying crab chilau forward today: Enzo Pardo, a Sicilian chef reimagining the dish through his own heritage; Jesus Puerto, a Tampa native who returned home after decades away to stake his claim; and Reggie Nelson, an enterprising businessman and chef building a name for himself while preserving a culinary legacy rooted in community.

Listeners hear first-hand how crab chilau isn’t a single recipe. Instead it’s what happens when different cultures, customs, and lived experiences come together in the same pot and city. No one version is the same—some are spicier, some brown the sauce until it resembles a stew. Others keep it closer to a sofrito. Add-ins like ground beef, smoked sausage, and snow crab aren’t deviations; they're evidence of a dish built to evolve and feed a crowd.

Through personal encounters in kitchens, restaurants, and the outdoors, Hutcheson shares how crab chilau reflects the way Tampa’s food culture itself was built: informally, collaboratively, and without a singular owner. From cooks freestyling the pot to meals designed to nourish entire neighborhoods, the dish tells a larger story about gathering, creativity, and culture.

Crab chilau is a living record of how cultures meet and adapt. Listeners will walk away from this episode with a deeper sense of Tampa’s identity and place in the American South.

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In “Southern caviar is wild, nutty, and...sustainable?” Gravy reporter Irina Zhorov takes us to the Tombigbee River, where valuable paddlefish swim, and makes a case for caviar as an ingredient with a Southern pedigree.

Every mature female fish makes roe—that’s the term for their clusters of unfertilized eggs. But caviar, for purists, comes from an ancient fish called sturgeon. There are more than two dozen species of sturgeon, but the best-known caviars come from a handful of species native to Russia and Central Asia: Beluga, Sevruga, Kaluga and Osetra. These fish are diadromous, which means they can live in both rivers and seas. And historically they were caught in the wild, their roe processed into caviar, and eventually sent around the world. Though fish roe started out as poor people’s food in Russia, it evolved to be synonymous with luxury, royalty.

However, sturgeon were so overfished that it is now illegal in most places to import their wild-harvested caviar.

In the U.S., too, several species of sturgeon were once dense along the eastern coast, in the Great Lakes, in California, and elsewhere. Indigenous tribes and white settlers alike consumed Atlantic sturgeon before a caviar rush in the 1800s diminished their numbers. It’s illegal to fish for most domestic sturgeon.

Today, more than 99 percent of caviar globally comes from farms, mostly in China.

There are a few exceptions to this rule in the U.S. Small shovelnose sturgeon can still be harvested in some areas for caviar.  And paddlefish—which is not a sturgeon, but its close cousin—is fair game in some states, too. The fish live in the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

While the U.S. has an available supply of wild-caught, high-quality caviar, it lacks a clear cultural context for how to enjoy this decadent treat. In this episode, Zhorov speaks to Mike Kelley of Kelley’s Katch, a Tennessee caviar producer, and biologist Steve Rider, who studies paddlefish populations in Alabama, to learn about a food that’s from the South but, paradoxically, not at all associated with Southern cuisine.

Some people and companies are trying to educate American consumers about caviar and to modernize the way domestic consumers eat the food. That can include parties with caviar tutorials and introducing new, American ways to indulge, like with a dollop of caviar on Doritos. Christine Lemieux, one-half of the company Caviar Dream, explains how this delicacy can be for everyone.

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In “Boars Gone Wild: Texans Hunt, Trap, and Cook a Piggy Pest,” Gravy reporter Georgia Sparling takes a deep dive into the conundrum around Texas’ pig problem.

They say everything’s bigger in Texas, and that is certainly true of the wild hog population. Millions of feral pigs roam the rural (and not so rural) areas of the Lone Star State — destroying farmland, pushing out native animals, obstructing roadways, and leaving behind billions of dollars in damage each year. And their numbers are growing at an astounding rate.

Hunters and landowners in Texas have a green light to kill any and all wild pigs, be it on foot, from a helicopter, or even from a hot air balloon. But then these intelligent yet invasive animals are often left to rot in the fields because everyone knows they’re tough and gamey, right? Well, not according to chef, butcher, hunter, and “hog apologist” Jesse Griffiths. The author of the James Beard Award-winning The Hog Book and co-owner of Austin’s Dai Due restaurant, Griffiths is on a mission to revamp the reputation of feral pigs.

In this episode of Gravy, Sparling explores the wild hog origin story and how the population has grown, not only in Texas but across more than thirty states. Armed with a mic, she travels from field to table. She joins Griffiths on a hunt for hogs, and then takes listeners into the kitchen to understand just how varied, versatile, and sustainable their meat is. She will also explore their slowly growing popularity as wild boar meat becomes more available.

Along the way, she speaks with Mitch Hagney of the San Antonio Food Bank. As federal funding cuts erode SNAP benefits and food pantry budgets, Hagney and his colleagues are devising creative solutions to address the hunger problem. They’re hoping that by teaming up with hunters and trappers, wild pigs can be a creative solution to feeding thousands of low-income families in Texas and beyond.

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In “Texas Pecans, A Thirsty Nut to Crack,” Gravy reporter

For about as long as there have been humans in what we now

Between drought-affected trees and the sale of farms, Texas is seeing a statewide decline in annual pecan yields. And climate scientists predict that these rough recent years are likely not an exception, but a new normal. Still, Texans are finding creative ways to adapt and preserve their trees and a way of life.

For this episode, Thompson talks to pecan growers, including Troy Swift of Swift River Pecans, who has turned to regenerative agriculture and biodiversity. She also speaks to Mark Walls of 38 Pecans, who has invented creative new pecan products to boost his business. Jennifer Wammack of Berdolls, a commercial bakery, tells how her family ships pies all over the world and distributes them through vending machines. And Thompson also visits the Lamar Senior Center in Austin, one of the last remaining nut-cracking facilities open to the public, where people come after gathering pecans on their own property each autumn. Hopefully, for many holidays to come, we can all enjoy a big slice of Texas’s state dessert.

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In the sixth and final episode of her six-part Tending series, host Shirlette Ammons seeks insight on the future of Black farming and asks if there is a world in which farmers are not dependent on the USDA.

About Tending

Hosted by award-winning musician and documentary producer Shirlette Ammons, Tending is a six-part narrative series that explores the ongoing struggles of Black farmers through the lens of Pigford v. Glickman—once the largest civil rights class-action lawsuit in U.S. history. Ammons—an eastern North Carolina native with deep farming roots—travels across seven Southern states to meet Pigford claimants and their descendants. Their stories paint a vivid picture of injustice and an ongoing fight for restitution.

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In this fifth installment of Gravy's Tending series, producer Shirlette Ammons examines the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, comparing it to the Pigford settlement and assessing whether this new federal program represents a genuine step toward justice for Black farmers.

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The fourth installment of the six-part Tending series explores the power of the USDA's county committees, recounting a Black family’s tragic story of land loss and harassment and examining why these local committees are often called "the last plantation."

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In the third episode of her six-part Tending series, host Shirlette Ammons visits Nicodemus, Kansas, a historic Black settlement, to learn how one family’s decades-long battle against the USDA’s discrimination began and how their case became a foundation for the Pigford v. Glickman lawsuit.

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In this second episode of Tending, Shirlette Ammons travels to Georgia, where she meets two Black farmers whose stories illustrate the emotional and physical toll of fighting the USDA's discrimination.

About Tending

Hosted by award-winning musician and documentary producer Shirlette Ammons, Tending is a six-part narrative series that explores the ongoing struggles of Black farmers through the lens of Pigford v. Glickman—once the largest civil rights class-action lawsuit in U.S. history. Ammons—an eastern North Carolina native with deep farming roots—travels across seven Southern states to meet Pigford claimants and their descendants. Their stories paint a vivid picture of injustice and an ongoing fight for restitution. 

Visit the “Tending” website here to learn more.

The first episode in this series profiles North Carolina.

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